It is heartening to read such excellent & praising reviews about an organisation which has rendered an unthankable service to the enterprising people of Mumbai since donkey days.
Generally, one always finds the average Indian to be a great critic of the Government and its organisations but here, we have something different and why not. Mumbaiite knows & understands the great difficulty under which the B.E.S.T. operates its service that to, at an efficiency of almost 97%, no bus transport company in the world can touch that percentage.
One of the high rankng officials of the World bank ones called it the ’Best serving bus transport company on the globe’. Yes offcourse. I have been to many a cities & used the local bus transport in New Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, Cities in Gujarat, even in Bangkok & Jakarta, also, I have heard a lot about London Transport & Hong Kong city’s bus service. But when it comes to efficiency, frequency & above all operating under the given conditions like huge traffic snarls, jay walkers, lane cutters, pollution, humidity, creepy autos, etc, I cannot but imagine any other city transport doing better than this. I swear you would choke yourself standing anywhere near to any of the city buses in India but not the B.E.S.T. Even the oldy Double Decker wouldn’t emit smoke.
Consider plying buses during 26/7 or for that matter operating skeletal service during the riots or a bandh. Hats off to all at B.E.S.T. who make this city more livable & accessible and that too with the highest comfort possible. I have seen their work culture, the Depot’s which are extremely spic & span buses are taken good care of, no torn seats or loose fittings, just perfect & enough. The buses clean & RED as ever, you can expect more good things from the undertaking in future.
I recommend every traveller coming to Mumbai to get a feel of this transportation we so dearly love to admire, and even to those Mumbaiites who unknowingly, never bothered to give it a second thought.
The staff on-board may not find time to say ’Good Morning’ to you they have a thousand to ferry the whole day, how many can they keep wishing. Try saying ’Namashkar’ or just a ’Thank you’ for the service to the driver & conductor who ferries you to the office, I bet you will notice the difference..... I have.